As contractors celebrate the end of their first year on-site at the St James Centre, with the project so far on schedule, doubts about the future of Leith Street are surfacing elsewhere.
The proposals causing concern involve various changes in use from carriageway to footway and footway to cycleway.
They’re contained in traffic notices (RSOs) for a ‘Redetermination of Means of Exercise of Public Right of Passage’, and a rough idea of what’s planned can be seen in the design below. More information in rather indigestible form is available here.
Poor visibility
There are two general worries.
One is that, following the letter of the law, developers have not approached key stakeholders in any meaningful discussion of these plans. Many of the latter have stumbled across potential issues by dint of their own independent researches.
The other is that there isn’t enough detail in the plans that are available – things like crossings, types of surface treatment, profiles indicating kerb heights, dimensions (e.g. cycleway width) etc. – for observers to judge how the ‘right of passage’ would function.
All of which goes to strengthen the unfortunate impression that when it comes to major projects like the St James Centre and Picardy Place, the developers and Council officials prefer to operate in a short flexible fog rather than in the extended clear daylight of public scrutiny.
Problems in detail
Potential problems brought to Spurtle's attention include:
- The footway seems narrower than street guidance minimum in places.
- It’s not clear whether the cycleway is intended to be two-way, and therefore too narrow in places and a likely source of conflict between cyclists and pedestrians.
- The junction for southbound cyclists leaving Greenside Row appears unsatisfactory.
- The Greenside Row pavement looks like a probable area of cyclist/pedestrian conflict, with no clarity about whether adequate demarcation between the two is intended.
- Footways and cycleways cross over each other at Calton Road – apparently all cyclists are expected to go down Calton Road.
- It’s not clear how or where northbound cyclists will join the (presumably two-way) cycleway which will eventually continue to Elm Row.
Campaign group Living Streets Edinburgh has laid out its objections with great clarity here, and Spurtle understands Spokes Lothian activists are now weighing up their options and seeking political intervention.
We'll return to this story as it unfolds.